Tuesday, September 29, 2009

OK! So I am a person who starts packing "minimum" 3 days in advance before any trip and here I am on the last day trying to stuff bare minimum things inside the suitcase due to the strict instructions that I should not expect my husband to carry so much of luggage on the small lanes and bridges of Venice. However, I did manage to accomplish what he had asked and we just had 1 big suitcase, a trolley bag with one huge rucksack and of course not to forget the diaper bag which I have become used to for the last 3 and 1/2 years of my life... { BTW another colleague of his ( family of 4 ) were traveling with 6 bags in all... hmmphh }

Anyway.. so we are all set to go.. reached his office from where we boarded the office bus with police escort.. ( we get that for security purpose ) Nigeria is known not be a very safe place...

Reached airport on time, boarded the flight on time.. Although had to wait at the check in counter for more than an hour since there seemed to be some problem with my ticket (again) for which we were compensated with free access to the lounge... ;)

Boarded the flight.. kids were sweet enough to sleep through most of the flight.. Was tempted to watch a movie but thought of Rome and decided against it.. Changed the flight at Frankfurt, boarded again.. slept again as much as Aananya allowed... and....

Finally the plane landed in Rome.... hotel was nice too.. only problem - had to pull the luggage to the room which was on the 2nd floor.. well not much of a problem for me as I had Aananya in my arms.. problem part was for Aakaash..1 double bed and a single bed ... joined all the beds together.. had a comfortable stay..The location was excellent. close to the Termini station, bus stop, church.. all in all I can say "indeed a prime location"...

First day:-By the time we came out of the room, we decided just to do a lil shopping/ window shopping.. look around... just enjoy the weather...Had Italian food out in the open right next to the Church with the church bells ringing from time to time with a spectacular weather and view.. It was like we were in a different time..Came back to the hotel, tried to rest as much as possible to be charged up for the next day..

Second Day:-Took the hop on hop off bus, saw the Colosseum, booked a tour... got to know about it's history and they took us to the forum and Palatine hill ruins. A tour guide is a must else the place would hold no meaning at all... and you would find it a waste of time.. The view from the top was so beautiful, you could see the entire Rome... It's very hard to describe in words the beauty that Rome holds...This place took up so much time of ours that we decided to sit tight on the hop on and hop off bus and got down only near the trevi fountain which is just so spectacular unlike anything I have ever seen... Of course didn't forget to make a wish and threw in a coin, wonder what Aakaash wished for??? hmmm...So Aan wanted to make 2 wishes and threw 2 coins, 1st wish - a burger and 2nd wish - water!! However his 2nd wish was granted immediately and for the 1st wish he just had to wait for a day!

Third day:-I was very excited since today was the day I was visiting Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.. well I didn;t know that either.. Just as you enter the Vatican City, it looks like you have entered a different world all together.. The workmanship is so fine that makes you wonder how artistic and meticulous those people would have been.. You have to be there to feel the power that they would have felt...

Fourth day:-We went and saw Spanish Steps, Pantheon and all the other tourist spots we could cover. In between a lil bit of shopping and got caught in the rain so decided to halt and eat at one of the cafes, hogging on Italian food, sitting outside under a small umbrella where we could hear the pitter patter of the rain.. This was the perfect way to end the beautiful trip to Rome but I was looking forward to my train journey to Florence...Italy is a place that makes you feel things you haven't felt before.. I suggest it is a must to go there and it should be put on everyone's wish list...

Monday, September 28, 2009

This is for the 1st time that I really felt like writing something.. Although I am not very good with words but I am writing this blog for my sis and my family... I wanted to share the experience that I had with them..

Somehow I wanted to write this blog from Italy itself but due to the hectic and tiring schedule never had the courage to stay up late and do so.. Anyway its never too late till the time you do so.. right!!!

Anyway.. So it starts from ...ohh by the way any time you feel bored.. you can leave.. no compulsions ;) to read further ahead....;)

ok.. So finally it starts from have 2 holidays together after sunday which is a rare phenomenon in Lagos.. So almost all families were trying to capitalise on this and so was I.. Since I am the one who decides on destination.. ( per sey my fav destinations or wish list destinations as I call )... My sweet hubby simply agrees and abides by my decision since he knows my choice has to be the best.. Do you think he has a choice where he can really dispute that???? He too is my choice isn't it?

Anyway, so initially we or I had decided on Egypt... The factors :- Only 4 days to cover the entire place.. and 4 days was enough to bare the brunt of the heat of Egypt... So suddenly my dear husband whose practically 2nd wife is his work came up with the idea of taking 3 more days leave and seeing some other place like .... like.... ITALY...

So I grabbed on the opportunity and started my research work.. which almost ate my entire week including the weekends but at the end it was worth it..

Ya so to go on with my story..So finally we decided to go to Italy and gave the visa application for Sweden because we could get visa faster since as you know Aakaash works for Ericsson which is a Swedish company and probably might retire from this company one day ( a joke cracked by my friends often) !!! He has been working here for 10 years now.. However the visa needs to be sent to Abuja which is another place ( 1hour flight from Lagos). The visa could be sent only on tue due to the policies etc and could come back on thur which was cutting it too fine since we wanted to fly on Friday night.. However we were sweating on Thursday and weren't able to book our flights or hotels due to the visa prob... Mind you this is suppose to be the "peakest" season according to Italian.. as published on their websites..

We were practically running against and out of time.. On Thursday morning we got a green light and started the 2nd round of work.. - book flight tickets.. well that is another story too...

So we asked for 4 tickets to be blocked on Monday and went ahead with our hotel bookings.. wait a minute I never said that the flight story was over.. So on thursday when we asked to confirm our tickets the travel agents tells us there are no tickets available for Friday.. Now remember we have already finished booking our hotels... Finally the travel agent does manage to get tickets from another airlines and that's when we realise that Aananya's age has been made 2 instead of 1, an error on my husband's part.. Finally when that is corrected.. we realise that the return ticket has been booked from Vienna instead of Venice. Last but not the least when that error is corrected, the tickets that are handed to us are 3 instead of 4... So this was the story of how the tickets were finally confirmed for 4.

Now that we have 4 tickets in hand.. there comes the part of hotel bookings which I was exhausted mentally and physically looking for by now... I just booked for Rome and left Florence and Venice for aakaash to complete. However we got good deals in the end but to find a hotel in center of Venice where I eventually wanted to stay was costing for around 50000rs per night.. So we settled for less and I dropped the idea of watching the canal and gondolas floating right below from my room.. About my journey to Italy would be in the next blog that I write..... since being a mom doesn't give the liberty to stay online for such long hours..;) Ciao... as the Italian say!!!!